An entire ‘neo-Advaitic’ movement has arisen reflecting not only traditional teachings but the demands of western culture. While this movement is arguably a good trend for the future and contains much that is positive in it, it is also a fertile ground for many distortions, which are likely to become more pronounced as the popular base of the movement expands.

The Advaitic path is rooted in a powerful and simple logic, which is not difficult to learn. “You are That”, “The Self is Everything”, “All is One”, and so on. We can easily confuse adapting this logic, which is not difficult, with the actual realization of the state of awareness behind it, which is something else altogether. We can answer all questions with “Who is asking the question?”, when it may be no more than a verbal exercise.

Faced with both old and new misconceptions, the Advaitic student today is in a difficult position to separate a genuine approach and real guidance from the bulk of superficial or misleading teachings, however well-worded, popular or pleasant in appearance these may appear to be.

Advaita and Vedanta

Advaita is primarily a term of Advaita Vedanta, the non-dualistic tradition of Vedanta. Though rooted in the Vedas, Upanishads and Gita, its most characteristic form occurs in the teachings of Shankaracharya (c. 500 AD), who put these Vedic teachings in a clear rational language that remains easily understandable to the present day. The basic language and logic of Shankara can be found behind most Advaitic teachings, even those who may not have studied Shankara directly. There are many specifically Advaitic texts from Shankara’s Upanishadic commentaries to more general works like Yoga Vasishta, Avadhuta Gita, Ashtavakra Samhita and Tripura Rahasya as part of an enormous literature, not only in Sanskrit but in all the dialects in India.

Similarly, there have been many great gurus in the tradition of Advaita Vedanta throughout the centuries. Most of the great gurus of modern India have been Advaitins including Vivekananda, Rama Tirtha, Shivananda, Chandrashekhar Saraswati of Kanchi, Ramana Maharshi and Anandamayi Ma. Most of the great gurus from India who brought Yoga to the West like Vivekananda, Yogananda, Satchitananda and Swami Rama, also taught Advaita Vedanta, if we really look at their teachings.

However, a recent trend has been to remove Advaita from Vedanta, as if it were a different or independent path, and not bring in the greater tradition of Vedanta. Though neo-Advaita usually bases itself on modern Advaita Vedantins like Ramana Maharshi or Nisargadatta, it usually leaves the Vedanta out of the term and neglects the teachings of other great modern Vedantins from Vivekananda to Dayananda, though their works are easily available in English and quite relevant to any Advaitic practice.

This ‘Advaita without Vedanta’ is particularly strange because many important ideas found in the neo-Advaita movement, like that a universal path of Self-knowledge, reflect the neo-Vedanta movement that was popular in the early twentieth century following the teachings of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda and have been echoed throughout the modern Vedanta movement.

Neo-Advaita and Ramana Maharshi

The teachings of Ramana Maharshi are often the starting point for neo-Advaitic teachers, though other influences also exist in the movement. However, instead of looking into the background and full scope of Ramana’s teachings, there is often only a focus only on those of his teachings that seem to promise quick realization for all.

Some neo-Advaitins even refer to Ramana’s teachings as if Ramana was a rebel or outside of any tradition, almost as if he invented Advaita himself. While Ramana based his teaching on his own direct realization, he frequently quoted from and recommended the reading of Advaitic texts, which he found represented the same teachings as those that arose from his own experience. This included not only the works of Shankara, the main traditional Advaitic teacher, but many other texts like Yoga Vasishta, Tripura Rahasya and Advaita Bodha Dipika.

Ramana did broaden out the traditional Advaitic path from its medieval monastic Hindu forms. Yet even in this regard he was continuing a reformation since Vivekananda who created a practical Vedanta or practical Advaita and taught it to all sincere seekers, not just to monastics.